TOM Nicholls hopes he and Zac Smith can shake off their recent run of injuries and become a dominant ruck duo for Gold Coast in 2015.
Both young ruckmen have been at the Suns since the club's inaugural 2011 season but have played just one game together - way back in round eight, 2011, against Adelaide.
Initially, there was a simple explanation for this – Smith was physically ready to play AFL football but Nicholls, two years younger than his fellow ruckman, was not.
But since Nicholls' emergence in 2013, it has been injury that has kept the two apart.
Smith - who joined the Suns as a local talent access selection in 2010 - ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in round eight, 2013, against the Western Bulldogs, so was absent when Nicholls stood up to carry the No.1 ruck mantle in the second half of that season.
And Nicholls, one of the Suns' original 17-year-old access selections, was sidelined after round seven last year with an injured left posterior cruciate ligament, meaning he missed Smith's return in round nine.
Asked by reporters on Thursday whether he and Smith could finally take the field together again in 2015, Nicholls was hopeful they could form a dominant ruck partnership.
"It's a bit frustrating. You hear that word talent, but that's nothing until you perform," Nicholls said.
"We've got a lot of talls down there, we've got Zac, we've got Dan (Gorringe), Peter Wright who we picked up this year and Keegan Brooksby from Adelaide.
"So it is time this year to string a few games together and get that consistency on the field and hopefully myself and Zac and all the other boys can form some great ruck partnerships over the years."
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Nicholls re-signed with the Suns until the end of 2016 last August but, having played just 15 senior games in four seasons, acknowledges this season is a big one for him.
"Every year is obviously important, but this year more so," he says.
"I've been injured the last two seasons, so this year I will be looking for that flexibility and staying out on the field and just improving as much as I can and playing as many games as I can."
Nicholls resumed full training shortly before Christmas and said his body had coped well with the intense workload.
"I had surgery at the end of last year on my knee to repair my PCL and it's coming along really well," he said.
"I'm out there in full training now with the boys.
"It's hot, it's a good slog out there but everything's going well."
Nicholls, who is of Fijian heritage, was speaking after the announcement that the Queensland state government will provide $40,000 towards the Suns' multicultural program.
